Mafia Girl (28 page)

My dad isn’t the feared mob boss now. Someone else has taken over. The police don’t come to our house anymore. Our family isn’t on the TV or in the newspapers now, at least not on the front page. The running is over. There’s a calm to our lives that I have never felt before.

For the first time in seventeen years, I can date whomever I want. I don’t need his approval. I’m not living in his shadow anymore.

Our lives are totally different since he left. We live in a small apartment now. Anthony and I sleep in single beds in a room we share with a screen between us. The fancy cars are gone and so is the jewelry. We don’t eat out anymore unless someone else pays. I take the subway to school.

My brother is different too. He works for a company selling Italian suits. He has an honest job, I think, at least for now. He seems calmer these days, more resigned to things. We lost so much, but along the way I gained something no one can take away from me: a separate identity.

I’m not the don’s daughter or Mafia Girl anymore. I’m Gia now. Just Gia.

And that feels good.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2014 by Deborah Blumenthal

Cover design by Jenna Stempel

Cover image © Iambada/Vetta/Getty Images

978-1-4804-7553-3

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